{"id":2883,"date":"2022-04-14T01:02:09","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T07:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?p=2883"},"modified":"2023-01-21T22:45:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T05:45:36","slug":"2022-april-1-news-article-wglt-npr-news-prosecutors-push-back-on-barton-mcneils-claims-in-his-push-for-a-new-trial-in-daughters-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?p=2883","title":{"rendered":"2022 April 1 News Article \u2013 WGLT NPR News \u2013 Prosecutors push back on Barton McNeil’s claims in his push for a new trial in daughter’s murder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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WGLT | By <\/strong>Edith Brady-Lunny<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published April 1, 2022 at 3:48 PM CDT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bart McNeil during a recent court hearing in McLean County.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Click HERE<\/a> to be taken to the article as published at WGLT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidence that Christina McNeil was murdered by someone other than her father was challenged on Friday by the state in a motion to dismiss Bart McNeil\u2019s petition for a new trial on charges that he suffocated the 3-year-old girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1999, McNeil was convicted of killing the child and sentenced to 100 years in prison. He has maintained his innocence, claiming police overlooked his former girlfriend, Misook Nowlin, as a likely suspect. The two ended their rocky relationship hours before the child\u2019s lifeless body was found by her father in her bed at his Bloomington apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a 41-page filing<\/a>, the state takes issue with potential new evidence outlined by the Illinois Innocence Project in McNeil\u2019s petition filed in March 2021. The defense pointed to new forensic analysis of a pathologist\u2019s opinion that the child had been sexually abused before her death. The alleged abuse was a key element of the state\u2019s case against McNeil \u2014 the theory that the father suffocated the child after he molested her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state argues the defense evidence related to the pathologist is not \u201cnew\u201d or \u201cmodern\u201d and was available at the time of McNeil\u2019s bench trial. The recent opinion comes for a doctor who \u201csimply holds a different interpretation of the autopsy findings and a different opinion as to cause of death than the State\u2019s forensic pathologist,\u201d said the state in its motion filed by prosecutor Mary Koll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hours after his daughter\u2019s body was discovered, McNeil summoned police back to his apartment. He told officer Randy McKinley, who later became Bloomington police chief, that he suspected an intruder may have climbed in Christina\u2019s window and killed her. McKinley and other officers denied seeing any evidence of an intruder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The presence of spider webs on a window screen has been a subject of debate at hearings in McNeil\u2019s case, with the state maintaining the insects were undisturbed by an intruder the night of the death and McNeil\u2019s legal team arguing that spiders have the ability to quickly replace their webs if they are knocked down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allegations of Nowlin\u2019s involvement in Christina\u2019s death became public after the Bloomington woman was charged with murder in the strangulation death of her mother-in-law, Linda Tyda. Before convicting the Bloomington woman of the killing, jurors heard evidence of Nowlin\u2019s obsession with money and her jealousy of her husband\u2019s friendship with another woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the issue of Nowlin’s DNA found on bed sheets and a pillowcase after the death, the state dismisses the defense claim that the newly discovered evidence puts Nowlin on a list of viable suspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven the nature of their relationship, it is natural and completely expected that Ms. Nowlin\u2019s hair would be found in defendant\u2019s residence, and particularly on his bedding,\u201d the state argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of his innocence claim, McNeil has indicated the bed sheets were laundered after Misook\u2019s final visit to his home, and before the child spent the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement from one of Nowlin\u2019s former neighbors that she was saw Nowlin \u201cgo between the closet and her apartment in the middle of the night on June 16, 1998,\u201d the night of the death, does not qualify as newly-discovered evidence, according to the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state agreed with McNeil\u2019s lawyers that he is entitled to a hearing on statements from two people who allege that Nowlin\u2019s former husband, Don Wang, told them Nowlin confessed to killing Christina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowlin\u2019s murder conviction in the Tyda case is irrelevant to McNeil\u2019s murder case, the state contends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil\u2019s cousin, Chris Ross, said Friday the state\u2019s filing \u201cis clearly designed to protect those who served 23 years ago in the same office and all those who originally investigated the case.\u201d The state\u2019s arguments are \u201ccounter to modern science and common sense and discount Misook\u2019s now known capacity to premeditatively plan and murder another person just as she did to Linda Tyda 13 years later.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement from McNeil provided by his family, the defendant said \u201cI am calling today for the same thing that I have been seeking since Day One and that is accountability in that Misook Nowlin be charged, prosecuted and convicted for my child\u2019s murder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A May 12 hearing is set on the state\u2019s motion to dismiss McNeil\u2019s petition for a new trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WGLT | By Edith Brady-Lunny Published April 1, 2022 at 3:48 PM CDT Click HERE to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[7,100,31,26,109,6,57,22,106,104],"class_list":["post-2883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-news-articles","tag-barton-mcneil","tag-charles-reynard","tag-christina-mcneil","tag-john-hanlon","tag-mclean-county","tag-misook-nowlin","tag-misook-nowlin-wang","tag-misook-wang","tag-stephanie-wong","tag-teena-griffin"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/WGLT-Article.jpg",677,662,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/WGLT-Article-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/WGLT-Article-300x293.jpg",300,293,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/WGLT-Article.jpg",640,626,false],"large":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/WGLT-Article.jpg",640,626,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/WGLT-Article.jpg",677,662,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/WGLT-Article.jpg",677,662,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/WGLT-Article.jpg",677,662,false],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/WGLT-Article-540x340.jpg",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"chris.ross","author_link":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?author=3"},"category_info":"Current News Articles<\/a>","tag_info":"Current News Articles","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2883"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3249,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883\/revisions\/3249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}